Pollen From Trees, Bushes, Grass: Culprit for Extra Bad Allergy Season in Cleveland

Northeast Ohio is now experiencing a severe allergy season.

Except for the employees who suffer from seasonal allergies, the weather is almost ideal for Affordable Fencing in Parma.

They are frequently seen in the yards, said owner Cory Ward. They must chop the plants down, and many of his men suffer from severe allergies but they have to be exposed to pollen while working on the the bushes.

Pollen vs. Allergy Sufferers

Although the warm weather and sunny days in Northeast Ohio are beautiful, millions of people who are allergic to pollen have good reason to be disgruntled

There was a ton of pollen flying via the air back there, according to the company's job foreman Edward Hess.

Extra Bad Allergy Season, High Levels of Pollen

The Cleveland Clinic's Dr. Lily Pien, an allergist, said that grass and tree pollen concentrations are both quite high.

According to Pien, the combination of the two is causing sneeze fits, watery eyes, congestion, and weariness.

Pien said that people are constantly being pummeled and don't receive any reprieve from rain, which helps lower the population numbers.

With bright skies and even higher temperatures anticipated for the weekend, doctors believe pollen has the ideal conditions for flight, so there is little hope of respite.

Pien said that some of the trees in the area are still in bloom, so she is unsure if the amount of pollen will diminish until all the trees have finished flowering and the grass pollen has dropped, which often doesn't happen until later in the summer.

Pien advises using nasal irrigation devices, nasal antihistamine sprays, and over-the-counter allergy drugs.

She also suggests turning on air conditioning and closing windows, FOX 8 reports.

The "Climate Change" of it All

According to an investigation by Climate Central, the length of Cleveland's allergy season, which is the time between the final spring frost and the first autumn freeze, rose by 32 days on average between 1970 and 2021.

The rate in Cleveland is more than twice as high as the 15-day average increase seen at the same time across approximately 200 US cities.

This is significant because, according to Climate Central, the longer allergy season has serious health implications for the nearly one-quarter of Americans who experience seasonal allergies.

According to Climate Central's findings, earlier springs and longer stretches of freeze-free days give plants more time to blossom and produce allergy-inducing pollen.

The overall picture is that, according to a 2021 research published in the journal PNAS, pollen counts grew by 21% countrywide from 1990 to 2018, with the largest increases occurring in the Midwest and Texas.

The continued effects of climate change result in more departures from what was formerly seen as normal.

According to William Anderegg, director of the University of Utah's Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy, it is not anticipated that regions without significant pollen seasons would start to have pollen seasons.

As a result, seasonal allergies now affect a larger portion of the population, according to Axios Cleveland.